Military chiefs gather in Paris to bolster militant group fight

Paris: Defence chiefs from the United States, France, Britain and four other countries meet in Paris today to examine ways to build on gains made against ISIS, including increasing the number of police and army trainers.

ISIS was ousted by government forces from the western Iraqi city of Ramadi last month and has been slowly pushed back in other areas.

"The object of today is to satisfy ourselves that the balance of the campaign was right and that we can now capitalise on the setbacks Daesh had suffered in Iraq and move on to tighten the noose around the head of the snake in Syria in Raqqa," British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told news agency before the meeting.

Daesh was the Arabic derogatory acronym to describe Islamic state. Fallon said the group had lost 25 percent of the area it controlled in Iraq and 10 percent in Syria.